the joy of living, its beauty, is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with this breaking message

 

    Yesterday, I got a birthday gift, and it was wonderful.  This year was a kind of non-birthday birthday. No cards, gifts, or calls. No hugs, kisses, or quality time. It was a long, quiet, slightly sad day. That's not to imply that there was no contact; the day was filled with FB messages, texts, and a couple of emails. It was just...at a distance. 

    The big exception was a late message from a college friend. I got it after I'd already been in bed, having gone to sleep early and a little bit melancholy. We don't text very often—generally only on the rare times when we've got the chance to see each other face to face—so when the phone chirped, I didn't anticipate the source. I read the message, which was long and personal and incredibly lovely, and didn't realize that I was crying until a big tear went Splat on the screen. It was one of those Just the Right Thing, at Just the Right Time, in Just the Right Way kind of things. My eyes still fill with tears when I reread it.

    And then, my birthday was over. It seemed to slip quietly out of memory.

    Until yesterday! Late in the day, I walked out to the end of my street to check the mail, a distance of maybe a block. The only thing in the box was a key, which signifies package delivery into one of the parcel lockers attached to the mail chutes. I didn't remember ordering anything, but at least once before have placed an Amazon order in my sleep (dangerous! SO dangerous!). With some trepidation, I opened the locker...

    It was a HUGE box, priority mailed from the left coast, from my friend GK. I laughed out loud when I realized what it was, and continued to giggle all the way back home, observed by at least two neighbors. Once back inside, I gleefully cut into it on the dining room table, and spent the next several moments oohhing and aahhing as I pulled out each item, perfectly chosen and all the more dear for being so unexpected. GK and I have never actually met, you see, and live about 2000 miles apart. Isn't it strange how connections are made? I know they are reading the blog (quietly), and I hope that when they read this, they know that the gift made my day, my week, and my birthday. There will likely be photos of the results of this gift for years to come, too. What a lovely present!

[the title quotation is by Frank Herbert, from Children of Dune]